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Financial Times Reports on Miscarriage of Justice in China

July 1, 2005

The alleged victim of a Shaanxi man charged with murder last year turned up alive in a neighboring province, according to a report in the Financial Times. Police accused Yue Tuyuan of murder after an acquaintance of his disappeared last year and an unidentified body was found in a nearby river. During an interview with prosecutors, Yue claimed police tortured him into confessing the crime, but prosecutors claimed they had DNA evidence and Yue relented and repeated the confession. The charge was only dropped after the alleged victim was found, but police never informed Yue of that fact and charged him with fraud instead. A court convicted him of that crime.

The alleged victim of a Shaanxi man charged with murder last year turned up alive in a neighboring province, according to a report in the Financial Times. Police accused Yue Tuyuan of murder after an acquaintance of his disappeared last year and an unidentified body was found in a nearby river. During an interview with prosecutors, Yue claimed police tortured him into confessing the crime, but prosecutors claimed they had DNA evidence and Yue relented and repeated the confession. The charge was only dropped after the alleged victim was found, but police never informed Yue of that fact and charged him with fraud instead. A court convicted him of that crime.

The Yue case closely resembles the wrongful conviction case of She Xianglin, which recently caused an uproar in China (see related story here). She Xianglin was convicted of murdering his wife in 1994 and sentenced to death after his wife disappeared and an unidentified body turned up in a local reservoir. Mr. She was sentenced to death, but the sentence was later commuted to 15 years imprisonment. In late March 2005, his wife suddenly returned to their Hubei village. These and other recent wrongful conviction cases have prompted a broad domestic critique of China's criminal justice system.